Handmade mosaic mirror

I was invited to take part in a blogger competition (my first ever!) by Topps Tiles who kindly sent me some small bathroom tiles and glue to make a mosaic creation.

The brief was very loose, simply to make a mosaic from the materials provided. After browsing Pinterest for some ideas I settled on making a mosaic mirror as it'll be both functional and pretty!

The tiles came in sheets like this...

 ...so I got Sam involved to break them up for me. It wasn't hard to split them, but it sped the process up a bit having him doing it!

I marked out a simple wave design on the mirror in biro and labelled which colour they were going to be so I wouldn't forget!

Then I picked a spot to start sticking the pieces down.

Slowly (very slowly!) I built it up, picking the right size and shape tiles for the gaps. It was a very hot day to be sitting out in the garden!

Finally it ended up completely covered.

Et voilà, it's finished!

I'm sharing this post on the following blogs: Seasoned Homemaker, Made to be a Momma and Savvy Southern Style.

3D paper cut buildings

We've had a very busy and enjoyable weekend down in South Devon seeing family and friends, but Sunday evening has, yet again, arrived too soon. It has a horrible habit of turning up when it's least wanted!

It's not been a quiet week craft-wise either.

I'm so happy to have finally framed this paper cut. From finding the perfect shade of olive green to tracking down a suitable-size frame, it took the whole of Saturday morning but I think it was worth it.

It turns out Sainsbury's is a good place for frame shopping! The raised layered mount really suits the paper cut.

I have a to-do list in my bedside table which is where I record ideas for art and crafts which fleetingly pop into my head. I write them down because I'm bound to forget about them if I don't, and when I have some spare time, I work on one.

This idea was for a paper cut resembling knitted fabric. Although I trawled the internet for knitted folds falling in just the right way, I couldn't find anything which matched the image in my head, so I grabbed a jumper, threw it down and took my own reference photo!

It's raised in places because it's not stuck down yet. I can never make up my mind about finishing touches and once an idea's been ticked off my list I move onto the next without spending time on boring bits like mounting and framing!

Another idea is this 3D architectural paper cut, inspired by the amazing creations of by Marc Hagan-Guirey of Paper Dandy. This style of paper cut involving folding is known as 'kirigami'. My first one was small and a little rough (you can see the lines from incorrect folds in the top two small buildings), but it left me full of ideas for more.

The next one I cut was a little more ambitious, but my measuring let me down, making it a bit wonky!

Can you see the cuts extending from the tops of the buildings on the right hand side? Well, they shouldn't be there!

They look lovely with light coming from behind them. Here's a photo including my mitt for scale.

 Below is how they start life, on a flat sheet of paper with lots of measuring involved!

I'm not finished with them yet though, watch this space for more!

While at Mum and Dad's this weekend I 'borrowed' their scanner and printer to prepare my next design ready for paper cutting. I drew it out by hand on a piece of white A4 paper, scanned it in, and printed it out on dark blue. I find it easier to draw designs out first on rough paper so that any rubbings out don't damage the good quality paper. If they're A4, it's then easy to copy them onto the chosen paper for cutting.

Finally, I'll leave you to ponder what I could possibly do with these tiles and glue! As an art and craft blogger I've been invited to take part in a mosaic competition by Topps Tiles who sent these materials out to me to play with. I'll be working on my entry this week and hopefully including it in next week's blog post!

I'm linking to today's post on the following blogs: Handmade Harbour, Weekend Doings, Be Different Act Normal and Manon Popje's Illustrations.